The IMF wants to cut down on carbon pollution and promote the use of greener technology by putting energy taxes on crypto miners and AI data centers.
IMF Proposes Energy Taxes on Crypto Miners and AI Data Centers to Curb Carbon Emissions and Boost Green Technology Adoption
DL News reports that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has come up with a new way to cut carbon emissions: taxing the energy that crypto miners and AI data centers use. It is planned that these businesses will use less power and switch to more energy-efficient technology if the cost of electricity goes up. The IMF study says that this tax could bring in $5.2 billion a year just from crypto mining and cut carbon emissions around the world by the same amount that Belgium currently emits.
Coin mining and data centers used around 2% of the world’s energy in 2022. By 2027, this number could go up to 3.5%, which would mean 450 million tons of carbon emissions. The IMF thinks that these businesses might switch to cleaner technology if they have to pay more for energy.
Crypto miners would have to pay more in taxes because they use more energy. Data centers might also have to pay more, but not as much because they usually work in places with better energy sources.
IMF Urges Global Coordination on Energy Taxes for Crypto Miners and Data Centers to Prevent Relocation and Ensure Environmental Impact
The IMF also says that these taxes should be used all over the world. Companies might move to countries with lower taxes if only some countries have strict energy taxes. This would make the effort less useful. A lot of data centers and crypto miners are getting tax breaks right now, which makes people wonder what the real economic and environmental benefits are.